[frankus]

This seems like a really clever implementation of an system that's probably a passing fad.

Touch screens are great for portable computers both because they need to be small and because they need to enable a potentially limitless number of operations.

In a car the number of things that need adjustment while driving is relatively small and doesn't really change. We've had climate and audio controls since the 1950s. We've since added speakerphones and navigation, but the former only requires a couple of buttons, and the latter shouldn't really require any adjustment while driving.

There's also no shortage of space to put the controls.

My guess is that touch screens will start to dominate in cost-sensitive segments of the industry, while physical controls will migrate to luxury status in a few years.